Book Review

Han Ong's FIXER CHAO

I am back to book reviewing...but then, this is more likely a private chat with you dear reader, me with my tea...talking about books...I am not really a credible book reviewer, I mean, hello, my writing itself sucks (at times) and WHO AM I to judge books? Still, I have some form of authority here. It is I being a Filipino reader. I guess that will be enough. That claim too, however, is suspect because I am now a Filipino American who have lived in the US for twelve years and...for crying out loud why am I apologizing? I own this web site and I can pretend to be Sally Fields if I want to, can't I?

You like me! You really, really like me!

I won't be offended if you'd hire the MSN Butterfly man and  drop me off your screen but to those who make me feel like Sally Fields, hear ye! hear ye! Han Ong's  Novel - Fixer Chao is what I'm going to  talk about because...well... he wrote it and his publisher offered it to the public (like, sell?) and I bought it and read it, so Han, if you read this, I'd like to  congratulate you. You are now an American novelist, a feat only a few Filipinos and FilAms have accomplished so far. But before I proceed let me tell you something about me as a Filipino writer/reader/reviewer..

I took Composition Courses in the States. I got A's in all of them NOT because my English teachers found my writing agreeable. It was because I was so contradictory without being abrasive to their expectations that they learned something out of me. In my Advanced Composition Class, I made a book review on Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night which the Professor hailed as one of the greatest American Novels  and I said, " Excuse me? How the hell did you find this garbage a great American novel?" I had the same reaction to The Lottery short story - how the f--- would somebody find that extraordinary in America? Stoning someone out of lottery? Well, try Bulosan's America Is In The Heart and you will get shocked for it being extraordinary! Anyway, did I say I was not abrasive? Just to give you an idea, I titled my Fitzgerald's book review  Coitus Interruptus: How Tender Is the Night Rendered All Its Characters Impotent.

The teacher of course decried my title, commenting  in red ink that my book review is too personal, that I cannot value the stream-of-consciousness (my ass) style of Fitzgerald - and I responded, " I read This Side of Paradise and The Great Gatsby in high school - and I can assure you, Fitzgerald was not a stream-of-consciousness novelist!" Heck, I got an A+. And the Teacher said, "I advise you to continue reviewing books at some level."

So being agreeable ain't gonna work for me at all times. It is just in my nature. But I am sincere.

Enough of my intro.

Fixer Chao has a simple premise. But it's an exciting premise. It was this premise that made me buy the book.  A Filipino ex-hustler (ex-hustler really made me buy the book) who, with the help of a Jewish man ( who seems to have personal vendetta against the world) fools NY society with a pseudo-master trade Feng Shui. And they succeed! Ain't that awesome?

Well, no.  And yes!

I won't go into the standard analysis of setting and characters and dialogues and whatever those Composition textbooks have taught me - who cares? I would go straight into my feelings towards this novel.

The beginning and  ending are both excellent. The middle is where I have a problem. Maybe because I read it between Nagoya and Detroit. Maybe because I'd never been exposed to the lifestyle of New Yorkers. Maybe  I don't understand the real "picture and message and meanings" espoused by this novel. Still, personally (I emphasize the word PERSONALLY here) I thought the middle was very passive that I felt like  reading a long lecture instead of a novel.

Is that bad? Well, for a reader like me who likes continuous action in fiction, it is. But for someone else,  this could be a very intelligent novel. And with what Han Ong is trying to convey, I can't help but conclude that some if his issues cannot be presented in an active voice. Some of them MUST be presented passively. The drift of Ong's Fixer Chao isn't limited to the usual "stories" I am familiar with. It is not even a stream-of consciousness  novel.  It is a novel that  makes  social commentary, a lot of it - about Preciosa, about the domestics, about the third world versus first world struggles, about racism, homosexuality, family disintegration and many more. Indeed, you may find yourself entering the world of the rich and famous ala Martha Stewart in New York to find how shallow they could be. Or  may enter the world of Preciosa,  who is a Filipino loser, and find how profound she could be. This book has merits of its own. If you'd like to see New York in the eyes of a Filipino, Fixer Chao is for you.

And before I end this review let me just add one thing: Han Ong utilizes English so sharply you can hear its crispy sound. The novel's language isn't just the simple blabber of a neophyte writer but it has maturity - it is definitely New York.

Ong is a writer who succeeds in telling you the state of mind of New York. And of course, Americans love this book.

Next book to be reviewed is Nadine Sarreal's Exactly Here, Exactly Now.

Alex Maskara Is Pinoy

Volume 1